The Marshall blogger backed out, so here's a good post from Brady.
With kickoff literally only hours away I wanted to throw out some of my hopes and fears for the game against Marshall.
With kickoff literally only hours away I wanted to throw out some of my hopes and fears for the game against Marshall.
I hope that Terrelle Pryor has a good game without having to scramble too much. Turning around to hand the rock to our stable of backs will probably be the main focus for TP. Mixing in some short passes, a couple of deep balls and some safe designed runs should be plenty to put away the Thundering Herd. It would also be nice to not have to endure 10 days of TP bashing by the media following a tough performance in the opener which leads me to my first fear.
I’m afraid that Pryor will want to prove his doubters wrong so bad that he may play a little reckless. We all know the competitor that TP is and realize he only knows one way to play football which is 100%. However, the last thing this team needs is a Beanie Wells type injury that sidelines our best player the week before a game against a ranked opponent. OSU will need Pryor at full strength this year. Getting nicked up in the first game against a MAC opponent is not the way to win a national title. There will be plenty of big games this season to show your stuff TP. Just put some points on the board early and get the team out of this one as healthy as possible.
I hope that the defense is as dominant in this first game as they are capable of. With players like Rolle, Homan, Heyward, Chekwa and Simon (I could go on and on but we all know the depth chart by now) the bucks obviously will have the superior talent when they line up against the Marshall offense. Heacock always has his troops ready and I don’t see a freshman quarterback making his first start in Ohio stadium doing much damage. With the talented defensive line the silver bullets are putting on the field this season, the back 7 should be able to make some plays.
I’m afraid there will be a cheap touchdown by Marshall due to Ohio State’s defensive mindset. This is almost guaranteed to happen when a top school opens up the season against an overmatched opponent. There almost certainly will be a play where the defense will over pursue and get caught out of position. I feel this is how Marshall will get their ONE touchdown. When a defense is as aggressive and fast as I expect the Buckeyes to be this year, it is bound to happen in the opener when the players are amped up. I would love to start the season with a shutout but I’m preparing myself to yell at the TV.
I hope the game plan is fairly vanilla and the offense can execute simple plays successfully. I know it has been a long summer and we’re all excited to see Pryor air it out but hopefully that won’t be necessary on Thursday. I am not saying I don’t want to see Posey and Sanz get involved but we have plenty of backs to carry the ball. Tressel has been very conservative with these opening games in past seasons and I hope that trend continues. That last sentence points to my last fear.
I’m afraid that the team may not be as sharp as they need to be on offense causing them to dive deeper into the playbook. The bucks obviously don’t want to show too much before the big game the following weekend against the Canes. The element of surprise will be very important when Pryor goes up against a much faster and more talented defense. Showing too many formations and offensive sets will only give Miami more video to look at. OSU has struggled with playing down to their competition in the past and I hope this isn’t the case again on Thursday night. As I mentioned above, get the lead early and let those running backs get some touches. I want every possible advantage going into that game on the 11th.
If you saw our writer’s picks in the “Who you got” post on Monday, I believe that OSU will win this one by a score of 27-10. I think that the game will never really be in jeopardy but it could be close at halftime. I will eat my words with pleasure if it turns into a blowout by the second quarter but I have seen too much Tresselball over the past decade to be totally convinced. Obviously the talent gap between the two teams is immense but I just can’t shake that nervous feeling. That’s probably because there is so much on the line for this season. As long as the bucks get a victory in a decisive manner by the final gun AND come out healthy, I will be a happy man.
